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Passage Introduced

At a little distance from the stand an extensive covert was fenced round
with stout poles, to which nets were attached so as to form a haye or preserve, where the
game intended for the royal sport was confined; and though many of the animals thus
brought together were of hostile natures, they were all so terrified, and seemingly so
conscious of the danger impending over them, that they did not molest each other. The
foxes and martins, of which there were abundance, slunk into the brushwood with the hares
and rabbits, but left their prey untouched. The harts made violent efforts to break
forth, and, entangling their horns in the nets, were with difficulty extricated and
driven back; while the timid does, not daring to follow them, stood warily watching the
result of the struggle. [Book the First, "Anne Boleyn," Chapter VIII. "Of Tristram
Lyndwood, the old Forester, and his Grand-daughter Mabel; Of the Peril in which the Lady
Anne Boleyn was placed during the chase; — And by whom she was rescued," p. 61]

Commentary: Antiquarian Interest

The view that Delamotte offers at the beginning of the eighth chapter
involving the chase is of the scene as it appeared in the summer of 1842. However, the
wooden fence suggests the enclosure or "haye" that the royal foresters have erected to
provide the king and his courtiers with suitable targets. Thus, the ornate headpiece
prepares the reader for Ainsworth's introduction of Morgan Fenwolf and Mabel Lyndwood
— and the epic Johannot​steel-engraving in which a stag attacks Anne Boleyn,
The Royal Chase
in Windsor Forrest in Chapter VIII. The strategy of showing the
present-day counterpart of the Tudor scene which Ainsworth describes seems almost
intended to encourage literary tourism and amateur antiquarianism.​Unfortunately,​all too
often Ainsworth is absorbed in the picturesque backdrop rather than the development of
the novel's characters, who, of course, are generally absent from Delamotte's
wood-engravings of Victorian Windsor, the notable exceptions being
Haunted Beech-tree, near Norfolk
Farm (Book I, Ch. V) and The Wild
Huntsman (Book I, Ch. V).

Johannot's Complementary Action from Chapter VIII

Above: Tony Johannot's ​stylish realisation of the scene in which Morgan
Fenwolf brings down the rampaging stag which menaces Anne Boleyn, The Royal Chase in Windsor Forest. [Click on image to enlarge
it.]

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An
Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With
designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry
Colburn edition of 1844.